The purpose of this shiur, in which we will be learning different topics, is to be able to properly learn specific subjects. The underlying assumption of the program is that usually the community is exposed to half-topics, and does not get the opportunity to make the most and encompass any one topic. This also leads to a misunderstanding of the principles which stand at the base of some very important halakhic issues, and therefore this shiur is an attempt to fix these lacking impressions which we have. The topics are also relevant ones, and therefore it is my hope that they spark interest.
The shiur will take place on Monday, 20:15, and since there are many unpredictable things which will lead us to cancel our shiur once in a while, I therefore am building a program only for 8 months. And this will be the structure: Every topic will be spread across 6 weeks, with 2 weeks break between the end of one and the beginning of the next. Let me now give a general overview of the topics:
First topic: Judaism's relationship with science
First shiur – Does Judaism treat science as friend or foe? What kinds of problems does science present before Judaism?
Second shiur – What happens when Chazal have a disagreement with non-Jewish scholars? What happens when the Torah itself stands opposed to science and logic?
Third shiur – Chazal's attitude towards medicine.
Fourth shiur – Chazal's attitude towards astronomy.
Fifth shiur – What happens to Halakha when science changes?
Sixth shiur – Do we take into account scientific findings which aren't noticeable to the naked eye?
Second topic: Medicine and Halakha – definitions of life and death
First shiur – Definition of life: When is the unborn child considered a human being? Rodef – do we save the mother or the child? Who is threatening whose life?
Second shiur – The Halakha regarding a fetus with Tai Zax.
Third shiur – The Halakha regarding a fetus suffering from Down Syndrome.
Fourth shiur – Definition of death: When is a person considered halakhically dead? Is the major death respiratory death or the ceasing of the heart-beat?
Fifth shiur – Is it allowable to shorten one's life in order to mitigate his suffering?
Sixth shiur – Organ donation in Halakha.
Third topic: The halakhas of wheat
First shiur – Measurements today (K'zait, etc.)
Second shiur – How much is considered a meal (קביעת סעודה)?
Third shiur – The definition of פת הבאה בכיסנין.
Fourth shiur – Pizza, Mezonot rolls, Malawach, Jachnun, soup nuts, and more.
Fifth shiur – French toast, Matza Brie, and more.
Sixth shiur – Eating wheat, cooked wheat, barley, and more.
Fourth topic: The laws of returning the lost and found
First shiur – The definition of the mitzvah: When do we need to return something we find, what is the Halakha if it was not returned, what is the status of he who holds the object, and more.
Second shiur – returning lost objects to non-Jews.
Third shiur – the concepts of דעת and ייאוש.
Fourth shiur – the laws of מקום המשתמר and a way of it falling from the original owner.
Fifth shiur – The laws of announcing the lost object.
Sixth shiur – Holding and keeping safe the lost object.
The idea in having a Jewish philosophy shiur is the encompassing of that world in a deep way, instead of learning a paragraph here and a paragraph there out of all kinds of books or source pages. The Jewish world of philosophy is very wide and holds within it a variety of opinions, but these views are not commonly known because most people lack weither the time or the strength to blaze a trail through philosophy books which use difficult-to-understand terms, and sometimes they also digress and discuss issues which seem uninteresting to the modern reader. Therefore, these books are usually set aside. The purpose of this shiur is to try and revive the serious learning of Jewish philosophy, and we shall do this by studying the major parts of philosophy books of the Torah Greats of all time.
The shiur will take place every Wednesday, 20:15, after Maariv. We will begin with Rav Saadia Gaon's book – האמונות והדעות – and spend ten shiurim on it, each time covering one of his chapters. Following that we will study Rabi Yehuda Halevi's book – The Kuzari – and also there we will spend ten weeks, two weeks per chapter (there are 5 chapters in the book). After that we will consider how to proceed. As I mentioned at the beginning, my goal is to give as wide a base of knowledge to the participants in those opinions which exist within Judaism. I hope this sort of learning will help the participants to appreciate each and every individual we will learn about.
